Senior Michael Collins listens during his American history class Tuesday at John Paul the Great Academy in Lafayette.

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When 45 states, including Louisiana, began using Common Core standards this fall, public schools had no choice but to implement them, especially in math and English.

But because private schools are free from state oversight, they can choose for themselves whether to use Common Core. No clear consensus appears to have emerged among private schools.

Educators and policymakers created the Common Core standards to establish universal academic benchmarks and raise U.S. public school achievement. There is no curriculum associated with Common Core. Rather, there are goals that students ...